Harriet and the Piper eBook

“Now, Ward—­look here,” she
said, sternly. “What sort of honour do
you call this! Half an hour ago I thought all
this nonsense was stopped. Shame on you!
Those girls promised me—­”

She saw Richard, and laughed, the colour flooding
her face.

“Aren’t they simply shameless!”
she said. “I had them all settled down,
once! Nina, where’s Francesca? You
see,” Harriet said, in rapid explanation to
Richard, “I gave the girls my room to-night,
so that they could all be together, and this is my
reward!”

The girls, entirely unalarmed by her severity, had
deserted Richard now, and were clinging to her with
weak laughter and feeble explanations.

“Francesca unlocked that door, and rushed into
Mr. Carter’s room!” Amy explained, wiping
her eyes. “And then the boys locked her
in there!”

The composed reappearance of Francesca at this point,
however, added to the general hilarity.

“You didnot lock me in, Smarties!”
Francesca drawled, childishly. “They climbed
to the balcony, and we were—­well, we were
undressing,” she said to Richard, “and
here they were hammering and yelling like—­like
Siwashes! We grabbed our wrappers, we wanted
to—–­”

“And I snapped off the light—­”
Nina interposed, with deep satisfaction.

“And, mind you—­”

“And, Father—­”

“And the wonder was that we didn’t die
of fright—­”

“Now, look here,” Harriet said, in the
babel, “I’ll give you all exactly two
minutes to quietdown. Never in the
course of my life--”

Richard thought her maternal indulgence delightful;
he thought the young people who clung about her charming
in their apologetic and laughing promises. Ward
and Bruce Hopper mounted to their own region; Richard
went with the girls and Harriet to the rooms that
had been attacked. Pilgrim, the tireless, was
already there, replacing pillows, straightening beds,
untwisting curtains. The girls, with reminiscent
bubbles of laughter, began to help her.

After the last good-nights, Richard and Harriet had
no choice but to cross the hall again, and they stood
there for a moment, laughing at the recent excitement.

“After twelve,” Harriet said, with a smiling
shake of her head. “Aren’t they young
demons! However,” she added in an undertone,
“it’s the best thing in the world for Nina!
This sort of nonsense will blow cobwebs away!”

Richard was only conscious of a desire to prolong
this intimate little moment of parental consultation.

“She doesn’t speak of Blondin?”
he asked.

“Not at all. The birthday came and went
placidly enough,” Harriet answered, suddenly
intent after her laughing. And as he did not
speak for a second, she looked up at him, innocently.
“You don’t think she’s hiding anything?”
she asked, anxiously.